Taking a chance

It would be impossible for us to do camp this summer without the more than 1,800 volunteers God has provided for us. We enjoy hearing their stories and often marvel at the way God moves to bring them here….

About 12 or 13 years ago, Michell G. of Texas hosted a group of high school girls from Atlanta when their group came to visit her church. As they chatted together, one of the girls mentioned that her sister was working that summer at a place for people with special needs called Camp Barnabas.

Four years later, Michell, herself a special education teacher, started thinking it would be neat to spend the summer at a camp for children with special needs. Everywhere she looked was only hiring people who were college age. Then she remembered the mention of Camp Barnabas. She looked it up and found that adults were welcome to volunteer but she was hesitant. “I never was one to step out of my comfort zone.” She decided to give it a shot.

“From the moment I arrived I knew I had found someplace special,” she says. As she stood in line at registration she looked to the side and there stood two of the girls from Atlanta who’d stayed with her. “How is it that four years later I’d decide to come to Camp Barnabas and would wind up coming at the exact same time as these two girls?” she laughs. She had signed up to volunteer for one week. She stayed four. And she’s been coming back ever since.

“God knows the big picture and He knew when he sent me here how it was going to change my life. For instance, the first year, I wasn’t used to the type of worship. Each year I grew more accustomed and it prepared me to move to a different church with the same style of worship, a place that allowed me to grow in my relationship with God.

“This place has also helped me with teaching my students. My school allows me to use this as one of my workshop/continuing education credits because it’s hands-on training. Each summer here I’ve had a camper who challenged me to learn something that wound up preparing me for a new student I would have in the fall, something I would never have worked with before. I go back into the classroom and realize God has equipped me to help this particular student through my Camp Barnabas experience.”

Michell has served as a cabin mom and working with arts and crafts. But her favorite role is rocking. Ian R is a particular camper she enjoyed rocking many times to help the cabin staff with bed-time and late-night wake-ups. “Ian R. would pull his head up to his chest and I’d say, ‘Where’s Ian?’ and he’d pop his head out and I’d kiss his forehead. We’d do that over and over until he went to sleep.

One of the first campers she came to know, Sarah P., had severe cerebral palsy. She answered yes and no questions with her eyes and used the ball of her foot to work a computer. “I realized,” Michell says, “as I cared for Sarah that it wasn’t me doing it, it was Jesus’ hands.

“Cross carry is one of the best representations of what Camp is to me.” (Cross carry takes place the last night of camp. Cabins line the path into camp and pray over the camp cross as it passes along to each cabin. The cross contains plaques with the names of Camp Barnabas campers who’ve died. Ian R is one of those campers.) Michell explains, “Standing together, huddled around that cross are people who are mentally challenged, physically challenged, football jocks, cheerleaders, extremely outgoing, shy, beautiful, geeks … all focused on the cross and what it means. It should be that way all the time, everywhere.”